mumok

Peter Kogler

31 Oct 2008 - 25 Jan 2009

Peter Kogler
untitled, 1992, 2008
silkscreen print on paper
MUMOK exhibition view, Photo: MUMOK, Lisa Rastl, © MUMOK
PETER KOGLER

31.10.08 - 25.01.09

Opening: October 30, 2008–7.00 p.m.

Peter Kogler (b.1959) is counted amongst the most internationally successful Austrian artists. The MUMOK is presenting the extensive oeuvre of this two-time documenta participant in a comprehensive show with over 100 works from 1979 up to the present day.
At the beginning of the 1980s Peter Kogler began to use media and computer technology as the basis for his installative works, confronting and blending the perfectionism of the new technologies with physical and organic motifs. This differentiated him from the mainstream of Neue Wilden painting. Simple basic modules such as an ant, brain, rat or pipe (which are then serially reproduced) have become succinct identifying features of his works. The art work is no longer only an object on the wall but, rather, architecture and public spaces become mediums for impressive, large-scale works. Thus the artist transforms galleries and museum rooms as well as railway stations and public spaces into virtual labyrinths which at times contain infinite and bottomless spatial perspectives. These appear to change dynamically (as is the case with the central installation in the exhibition) and provide visitors with new spatial perceptions.
The exhibition will show the relationship of Kogler1s early works to his most recent installations for the first time. In the cardboard works from the 1980s, film classics of modernity inspired the artist to a compositional method that linked figure and space together qua object. In their shadowy appearance, the pictorial motifs, which are structured in a repetitive, pattern-like way, already anticipate the computer generated works in which the identity and individuality of the human figure is deformed and volatised.

Curator
Edelbert Köb

Co-curator
Rainer Fuchs
 

Tags: Peter Kogler, Rainer Fetting